During and following an event, such as an emergency situation, a natural disaster, or a catastrophe affecting parties within a particular geographic area, a need frequently exists for the affected parties to make contact with or be contacted by family members and other interested parties. For example, a hurricane may cause significant flooding, wind damage, and destruction along a coastal area, disrupting communications and other infrastructure, as well as displacing area residents. After such an occurrence, a need may exist to restore communications so that affected parties can locate one another, verify their well-being, assist one another, and the like. It is also important to promptly restore communications so that recovery and relief efforts may be directed to restore living conditions in the affected area.
Even where some communications abilities remain partially or fully intact, communications systems may be overwhelmed with high traffic involving affected parties. If an affected party has been physically displaced (e.g., the affected party's home has been destroyed by a hurricane), then repeated call attempts to a home phone number or random calls to shelters and hospitals trying to locate the displaced party only compound the burden on the communications infrastructure. Aside from the need for affected parties to reach parties not in the affected area (or vice versa), often a need exists for parties within the affected area to contact each other, such as family members who have become separated during a major disaster.
Often, the most critical information that one party seeks about another is simply whether they have survived, their condition, and their location or how they can be reached. A party who is physically displaced or otherwise affected by a catastrophic event may not be reachable at the usual telephone number or via other forms communication which others are accustomed to using to reach the affected party. Even where the affected party eventually reaches an alternative location at which inbound communications may be received, it is difficult for the affected party to inform other parties of the affected party's whereabouts and how the affected party may be reached at the alternative location.